The article says there are no germs or dust so no pesticides are needed. That makes sense. If there are no pests, there is no need to kill them. This does not mean the lettuce will stay fresher longer.

A transition to Potato chips from Silicon chips I can understand... BUT lettuce??!! If the Iceberg's can be grown without pesticides (as the article alludes to) in a cost-competitive way, perhaps there is a business case for this!

Back in the 90's I worked at a company that had its own fab. The guy that was our head technology person (and who cut his teeth with one of Intel's original fabs) used to say "Not sure why I still this. It's not too hard to make a good cinnamon roll, the margins are pretty good, and you don't need a million dollar fab to produce them." As true today as it was then!